More Than Mud: Self-Sustaining Recycled Homes More Than Sum Of Their Parts

Nearly a half-century ago, earthen
buildings began to rise in the New Mexico desert. Made of packed earth, tires
and dotted with colored bottles, equipped with greenhouses and solar panels,
they looked like something out of a science-fiction movie.

These Earthships, created in the '70s
by progressive architect Michael Reynolds, were originally rugged capsules of
self-sufficiency. Built to create their own food, water, electricity and other
necessities in self-supporting systems, Earthships were solely for off-the-grid
types looking to break free of utility bills.

Early Earthships leaked, or would be
too hot. "But architecture, as it stood, was pointless," Reynolds
says. It didn't serve the earth — or even people. "We need to be doing
something right now."

Since then, Earthships have moved
beyond their counter-culture status. They're largely mistake-proof, though they
remain off the grid. Some are expansive and padded with all of the modern
amenities. Others have been held up as real solutions for areas suffering in
the wake of catastrophic events, from drought-stricken California to
earthquake-upended Nepal.

As Reynolds hoped, the buildings are
doing something. Right now.

“Earthships, once they're built and
you're living in them, they take care of you,” says Deborah Binder, who works to
build the homes around the world.

More living breathing system than
building, Earthships are built to collect water from rain, snow and even
condensation. It's then filtered for drinking water, or used in showers.
Produce-bearing plants help filter the lightly used “grey water,” which then
goes to flush the toilet. Even the toilet water, once filtered, goes to nurture
the landscape surrounding the home.

Deborah Binder at her Earthship in Taos, New Mexico.

Valerie Defert

“The amazing thing about these houses
is that they cover any human's basic needs,” Binder says. “They give you
electricity, power and lights. They give you shelter, they give you a warm
temperature to live in, they collect water, they produce food, and they take
care of your rubbish.”

And they're not short on comfort,
either.

“A lot of people think that Earthships
are a bunch of hippies building these cave-like things, and it really
sacrifices your comfort and your lifestyle,” says Binder. “But living in an
Earthship is like living in a luxury house.”

Binder lives in her own Earthship in
Taos, New Mexico, at Earthship headquarters, a community of nearly 200 of the
rammed-earth structures.

But she spoke from Fiji, where she
was working on a project that would ultimately produce the country's first
Earthship. Though Earthship builds commissioned client products, its nonprofit
arm focuses on humanitarian efforts, like the one in Fiji.

The South Pacific archipelago is
prone to cyclones, and the resulting devastation costs thousands in donor
relief. Earthships are stormproof, and use natural and recycled materials
readily available anywhere people live and create garbage.

“There are these deserts, full of
tires that are just lying around, and no one knows what to do with it,” Binder
says. “That becomes a very natural building material.” Discarded tires, when
packed with dirt, become bricks to form nearly indestructible walls. Spent
Coca-Cola cans further fortify interior walls, as do bottles, which also act as
stained-glass windows.

“It comes back to this saying that
some people's trash is other people's treasure,” Binder says. “It looks
beautiful. I wake up in the morning and see the sunrise coming up through the
window of the greenhouse of my Earthship, filtering through these colored
bottles and reflecting on the other side of the wall. It puts a smile on your face,
waking up like that.”

Binder says her colleagues are
discussing how to erect some of these incredibly durable structures in Nepal,
which will be rebuilding from the recent earthquake for some time. Similar
structures built in the Philippines have proved their resistance to extreme
nature, says Binder.

“We built a Windship, a
typhoon-resistant building, after Typhoon Yolanda,” she recalls. “They had
another typhoon later that year, and they were able to take shelter in the
Earthship, and they said they couldn't even hear it come by.”

Earthships are even functional in
drought-stricken areas, and have been successfully built in African deserts.
“Taos is the best example,” Binder says. “We're in the middle of the desert,
and still we collect enough water to survive.”

Earthships are particularly efficient
in places such as Malawi, a southeast African country that ranks among the
least developed in the world. It's also a place where the rain dries up for
half of the year.

Binder inside her Earthship home.

Valerie Defert

“They run out of drinking water every
summer, and then they have four months of tropical monsoon rains, and nobody
collects the water,” Binder says. “And it's something that's so ingrained in
our minds, that nobody ever thinks about it — there's water for free. It falls
from the sky.”

Malawi is now home to one of the
largest Earthship structures, the eight-room Malawi Earthship Community Center.
Shaped like a flower, the building has a pharmacy, library, clinic and a
women's room.

It's also given the community showers
and toilets, all filtered on-site. Even more, it's a completely self-sufficient
center where the people of Malawi can have a safe, weatherproof shelter with a
wealth of potable water.

It's all made from tricked-out refuse
— and there's nary a leak in sight. “It's something that's available to
everybody, and we can really make a difference in places where they probably
need it more than we do,” Binder says.

The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) is the world’s largest beverage company, offering over 500 brands to people in more than 200 countries. Of our 21 billion-dollar brands, 19 are available in lower- or no-sugar options to help people moderate their consumption of added sugar. In addition to our namesake Coca-Cola drinks, some of our leading brands around the world include: AdeS soy-based beverages, Ayataka green tea, Dasani waters, Del Valle juices and nectars, Fanta, Georgia coffee, Gold Peak teas and coffees, Honest Tea, Minute Maid juices, Powerade sports drinks, Simply juices, smartwater, Sprite, vitaminwater, and Zico coconut water. At Coca-Cola, we’re serious about making positive contributions to the world. That starts with reducing sugar in our drinks and continuing to introduce new ones with added benefits. It also means continuously working to reduce our environmental impact, creating rewarding careers for our associates and bringing economic opportunity wherever we operate. Together with our bottling partners, we employ more than 700,000 people around the world.